Monday, April 6, 2009

Don't try to use a nickname (or initials)in lieu of the name on your birth certificate, because Facebook will find you and spit you out.

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2. You joined too many groups

Remember that the maximum limit is 200 groups per user. More than that just looks desperate, don't you think?

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3. You posted too many messages on a wall or in a group

Even Guy Kawasaki had his account disabled--in his case for "excessive evangelism."

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4. You posted in too many groups, too many user's walls

You may be axed for being too verbose in too many places. That's what spammers do, silly. On Facebook it is better--or at least safer--to be seen than heard.

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5. You friended too many people

Not so long ago this was a prime cause of disabled accounts, but Facebook has instituted a maximum of 5000 friends that should protect you from yourself.

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6. Your school/organization affiliation is doubtful

The overlords are sometimes not very trusting, and they may accuse you of not graduating from Harvard (or Plum Senior High School). The impertinence! Better have your diploma ready.

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7. You're poking too many people

We've heard this from multiple sources, and it's easy enough to avoid. Save the pokes for people you *really* like, as mum always said. But beware the odd FB app that pokes on your behalf.

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8. For advertising your app on wall posts

The line between spam and self-promotion is a thin one, but let it be known that pimping your shiny new Facebook app is definitely considered SPAM.

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9. Using duplicate text in multiple messages

Some people paste a generic welcome message into friend requests to save time. DON'T DO THIS! It makes you look like a spammer. (Ironically, pro spammers are probably randomizing their messages to avoid this trap)

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10. You are a cow, dog, or library

Being a real person is not enough, you must be a homo sapien. Accounts have been deleted for cows, dogs and libraries.

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11. You are under eighteen years old

According to one report a user's account was suspended when they suspected her of being under 18. She was required to enter a work email address to prove her maturity, at which point her account was reinstated. [note: other users have pointed out that being under 18 is fine if you're part of a High School group, though underage home schoolers have been told to bugger off]

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12. You wrote offensive content

Reports of "sudden death" on accounts have been reported by users who were told they had posted offensive content, but were not provided details of the offense.

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13. You scraped information off Facebook

They have a zero tolerance policy for page scraping (i.e. pulling content off their web pages via a script). Unfortunately, they don't have a reliable way of proving it's you who's doing the scraping (IP matching is probably as good as they can get), so you may find this a difficult charge to defend yourself against.